People hate snipers cause they hate the fact that when running around they all of a sudden die. They don't feel like they had a chance.
I personally am a sniper in most fps games. It's hard to do. People who do run and gun "usually" don't have the patience to snipe so when they try it out get frustrated. They can't do it and they hate others doing it to them. Does that mean it's cheap? No. I've had people knife me from behind plenty of times. Someone sneak around corners and get to me. When someone gets close up, the sniper rifles loses most of it's effectiveness.
Most snipers still retain something close to a 1:1 death ratio. A Really good one can break higher then that. It's the same thing with Assault rifle people. 1:1 Death ration then you get some good player who can just own every now and then.
The difference? You can see one of them when they kill you.
I've been in every beta for this game (except for the public one since my ps3 wasn't plugged in) and I can tell you this game is balanced as far as every weapon goes. I've made 3 characters. 2 Specializing in Sniping one in assault. 2 on Raven (sniper, Assault) 1 on Sver (sniper). Valor i just don't have interest in. In the first beta's the level cap was 40 so i can't really say how it's like at 60.
EDIT: (By the way i just bought the game today, I'm already in a Clan though so I'll see you guys on the battlefield. Look for SoulSamurai)
CURRENTLY PLAYING: Warframe, Witcher 2
